Ofwat faces calls to get tougher with water companies over leakage

Regulator Ofwat is under pressure to get tougher with water companies over leakage as large parts of England face hosepipe bans.

Ofwat enforces a system under which leaks have to be repaired as long as the cost of doing so is less than the expense of not fixing them.

The cost of not dealing with a leak includes environmental damage and developing new water resources to compensate for the wasted water.Ofwat says leakage is down by about a third from its mid-1990s peak – a difference of 400million gallons daily.

Restrictions: Large parts of England face hosepipe bans

Thames Water, which covers 8.8million
homes in the London area, says it has reduced leaks by a third since
2004, but its pipes are still leaking about 155million gallons a day. It
is currently repairing 1,000 leaks a week, though it takes up to two
months to fix some.

South East Water, which serves Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire, is losing 21million gallons a day through leaks.

More...

Now the Consumer Council for Water has called on the regulator to change its approach.

Ofwat
said: ‘We need to achieve a balance. Customers tell us they want
leakage levels to go down but they also tell us they want bills to stay
down. They don’t want bills to go up significantly to pay to reduce
leakage.’